Posted by Markkw
on October 3, 2008, 7:57:40
71.53.140.27
Well, the headlamp turning on & off by themselves issue returned last week. Just sitting all by itself, not running, nothing intentionally turned on - headlamps would flash (blink) or just come on and stay on then after they got tired of being on, they'd go out again.
The van sat for a while before we got it, thought the mice had gotten to the wiring or that one of those insanely stupid fusible links was burried somewhere and buggered up more wires.
Of course the Hanes & Chilton manuals are about useless, I don't know where they get their wiring schematics from but the one thing you can count on is that they omit a few little things here and there like major components and complete harnesses or you'll find that schematic for a '93 dodge van fits more with a '72 Duster than the van.
Anyway, after four days of trying to catch the van with the light "on" and when the SOB didn't turn them off when it saw me coming... I started the relay swap - no problem there. Pulled the relay panel and started twisting & bending wire harnesses - still no change. When I ran out of everything else, I thought "maybe the Body Control Module?" So, I popped the top plug off, bang - lights out! Swapped the BCM for the one out of the wrecked van and no more headlamp problem. Even got a bonus, now the delayed wipers work again too! One more bonus - that annoying friggen so-called "chime" no longer annoys me!!!! 
Interesting note, both of these vans, the '92 Caravan I'm running now and the '93 Grand Caravan - for that matter the '95 Plymouth Voyager included are all alleged to be "second generation" .... well, let me tell ya sumptin folks - it seems as Dodge knew a few things that they didn't bother telling their customers. While the BCM from the '92 & '93 interchange, the guts ain't the same, close but there are key electronic components that differ in mfg and it becomes clear that Dodge knew they were prone to failure in the '92 because even though the external case of the BCM from the '95 is different, the enclosed electronics are exactly the same as those in the '93 Grand Caravan.... I wonder how many fires in these vans were blamed on the headlamp switch when in reality it was the BCM that started it? I know I've put out quite a few minivan fires and now, years later when I think about it, several complained that they couldn't get the headlamps to turn off just prior to the fire starting.....
I'm in the process of putting together a "before the price increase" tool sale but perhaps sometime next week I'll get a chance to post some pic's of the '92BCM side by side with the '95BCM
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